A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge: A Samuel Craddock Mystery

In Shames’s winning fourth Samuel Craddock mystery (after 2014’s Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek), the laconic Texas lawman takes up a case based on the incoherent mutterings of a dying woman, Vera Sandstone. It’s not really a case as such, since Vera cautioned that her daughter, Samuel’s longtime neighbor and county prosecutor Jenny Sandstone, might be in some kind of mortal danger. At first, he doesn’t take Vera’s warning very seriously, and neither does Jenny, but when attacks are made on Jenny’s beloved horses and then on her, he’s inclined to keep a closer eye on things. However, the more he presses Jenny for details—especially about her mysteriously estranged brother, Eddie, whom he suspects might be a person of interest—the more she withdraws. Craddock moseys among the locals, following his keen instincts and sorting clues, until reaching a satisfying resolution. [em]Agent: Gail Fortune, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Apr.) [/em]